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Page 1: Alter Ego #136

Roy Thomas’Monumental

Comics Fanzine

$9.95In the USA

No.136November2015

•1965–2015•STILL RASCALLY AFTER

ALL THESE (FIFTY) YEARS!

ROY THOMASTALKS ABOUT THE NUTTY ’90s

AT MIGHTY MARVEL(& ELSEWHERE)!

Characters TM & ©2015 Marvel Characters, Inc.RT cartoon © Marie Severin

1 82658 27763 5

0 8 BONUS!STAN LEE &

KEVIN SMITHJoin ROY at a 2014 confab!

Page 2: Alter Ego #136

Vol. 3, No. 136 / November 2015EditorRoy Thomas

Associate EditorsBill SchellyJim Amash

Design & LayoutChristopher Day

Consulting EditorJohn Morrow

FCA EditorP.C. HamerlinckJ.T. Go (Assoc. Editor)

Comic Crypt EditorMichael T. Gilbert

Editorial Honor RollJerry G. Bails (founder)Ronn Foss, Biljo WhiteMike Friedrich

ProofreadersRob SmentekWilliam J. Dowlding

Cover ArtistsMarie Severin, Andre Coates, Jackson Guice, Dave Hoover, David Ross, Lou Harrison, & an inker or three

With Special Thanks to:

ContentsWriter/Editorial: 50—Count ’Em—50! . . . . . . . . 2The Lee-Thomas-Smith Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Stan, Roy, & Kevin on 75 Years of Marvel—the book & the phenomenon!

“I Felt I Belonged At Marvel” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Roy Thomas talks to Jim Amash about his life as a freelance comics writer, 1986-1999.

Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comic Code . . . . . . . 71Concluding Amy K. Nyberg’s study of comics censorship.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! – Kid Stuff! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Michael T. Gilbert on Roy T.’s 75th birthday—and other “boy wonders”!

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #195 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85P.C. Hamerlinck introduces fans and pros who congratulate Captain Marvel on his 75th!On Our Cover: Around the turn of 1965-66, Roy Thomas and pal Gary Friedrich moved into anapartment in the heart of bohemian Greenwich Village, across Bleecker Street from the studio of asculptor who taught a beginning class on Saturdays. Roy took one early-morning lesson and, thefollowing Monday, told his fellow Marvel staffer Marie Severin about it. Before he’d even fullydecided to quit the class (which he did), Marie had drawn a devastatingly perceptive office cartoonshe titled “Roy’s First Day at Sculpting Class.” Ten years ago, at his pleading, she drew a moredetailed version of it, since he had misplaced the original over the decades, and that re-do serves asthe ironic centerpiece to a montage featuring published art from some Marvel series that Roy wroteduring the 1990s: The Invaders by Dave Hoover—Dr. Strange by Jackson Guice & inker JoséMarzan—The Secret Defenders by Andre Coates & inker Don Hudson—Avengers WestCoast & Ultron by David Ross & inker Tim Dzon—and Thor, a figure from a cover painted byLou Harrison. Oh, and thanks to Shane Foley for the cover idea—you’ll understand why whenyou see A/E #139. [Cartoon © Marie Severin; Marvel art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Above: Stan Lee (on left) and Roy Thomas are interviewed by Kevin Smith (not seen here, butdirector/writer of the films Clerks, Mallrats, et al.) onstage at L.A.’s Hammer Museum onDecember 6, 2014. The official occasion was the publication of Taschen’s gigantic volume 75 Years ofMarvel: From the Golden Age to the Silver Screen. Kevin seized the opportunity to query Roy,as well as Stan, about their early lives and careers, thereby making a transcription of the entireproceedings perfect for inclusion in this issue timed to celebrate Roy’s 50th year in the comic bookindustry, dating from late June 1965 (or a few months earlier, if you count two freelance stories RTwrote for Charlton). See pp. 3-28. Projected overhead are images from the mid-1950s revival of

Captain America. Thanks to Darin Klein of the Hammer Museum for providing the photo.

Heidi AmashPedro AngostoGer ApeldoornMarcus AntritterBob BaileyMichael BairJosh BakerJohn BensonClaudia BestorWilliam BigginsJackson BostwickEliot R. BrownRich BucklerNick CaputoComic Vine

(website)Tim & JoAnn

ConradJon B. CookeBrian CreminsTeresa DavidsonDiversions of the

Groovy Kind(website)

Sean DulaneyJennie-Lynn FalkGeorge FerrissDanny FingerothShane FoleyStephan FriedtJanet GilbertMike GoldGrand Comics

Database (website)guttertrash (website)George HagenauerBill HallThe Hammer

Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Ron & Jan Harris

Sean HoweDr. M. Thomas IngeDanny KaminskyDarin KleinDavid Anthony

KraftStan LeeMark LewisAlan LightJean-Marc & Randy

LofficierRichard A. LupoffDennis MalloneeBoyd MagersDoug MartinMike MikulovskyBrian K. MorrisClayton MooreFrank MotlerMark MullerHoy MurphyDr. Amy K. NybergBarry PearlJohn G. PierceJay PiscopoRubén ProcopioMike RockwitzDavid & Judi RossRandy SargentVija ShahKevin SmithJason StrangisDann ThomasClayton ThorpMichael UslanDr. Michael J.

VassalloJoss WhedonNina WienerMike Zeck

Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: [email protected]. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Eight-issue subscriptions: $67 US, $85 Canada, $104 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in China. ISSN: 1932-6890

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Page 3: Alter Ego #136

The Lee-Thomas-SmithShow

STAN LEE, ROY THOMAS, & KEVIN SMITH On75 Years Of Marvel—The Book & The Phenomenon

Dec. 6, 2014, Panel at The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA — Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

3

Part I – By The BookIntroduction by Roy Thomas

ometime around the middle or so of 2013, I wasasked by Taschen Publishing editors Josh Baker andNina Wiener to temporarily halt my writing of

what is to be a humongous book about the career ofMarvel Comics editor, writer, and publisher Stan Lee,which I’d begun a few months earlier—and to switch overto writing an, if anything, even more humongous volumeabout the first “75 years of Marvel”—from 1939 to 2014.By contract with Marvel, this new tome had to be on salein time for Christmas of ’14, giving it scheduling priorityover the Lee book.

Heavy Promotion For Heavy Reading(Left:) Barry Pearl sent us this composition he calls “Heavy Reading”: the cover of

the 17-pound Taschen Publishing book 75 Years of Marvel: From the Golden Age to theSilver Screen (with its Jack Kirby/George Roussos image from the cover of

The Avengers #4, March 1964) being hefted Atlas-like by the Hulk, as rendered by Jim Steranko for the cover of The Incredible Hulk [“King-Size Special”] #1, dated

Oct. 1968. The latter was actually the first Hulk annual. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

(Above:) The Taschen book’s bylined author, longtime Marvel writer and editor Roy Thomas (at center of photo), and film director Kevin Smith (on right) are clearly

enthralled as Marvel writer/editor/publisher/super-legend Stan Lee (on left) relates ananecdote—or maybe he was actually singing “The Merry Marvel Marching SocietySong,” as he kept threatening to do during the panel, and somehow the Hammer

Museum folks neglected to record it! Thanks to Darin Klein, public programs associateof the museum, for sending all photos from the panel and from the

book-signing afterward that appear with this transcription. And thanks to Stan Lee,Kevin Smith, and Claudia Bestor for their kind permission to print this transcription.

SS

I happily agreed to author the first half of the book, which I suggesteddeal with events through late 1974, when I stepped down after two-plusyears as Marvel’s editor-in-chief in favor of a writer/editor contract… butI requested that someone else pick up the story from that point, since Ihadn’t followed current comics closely since then. Taschen reluctantlyagreed, and I set to work, with a January 1, 2014, deadline for my portionof the work. A talented journalist on the West Coast was swiftlycontracted to do the latter half of the book.

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Come January 2, the first workday of the new year, I dulydelivered my text via e-mail and prepared to return to the Leebook, among my other pursuits. A couple of weeks later, however,the two Taschen editors got back to me and said that, althoughhe’d delivered a fine outline, my prospective co-author, due toillness, had been unable to scribe his half of the main text. So Joshand Nina asked me to write the 1974-2014 segment of the work,as well. Reluctant to do so, I suggested several other names tothem… but, in the end, I was persuaded to agree to finish thebook, as long as my colleague Danny Fingeroth (co-editor withme and major producer of the 2011 TwoMorrows study The StanLee Universe, and himself a former Marvel writer and editor)was commissioned to help me with research on the 1980s andbeyond. That alone would make it possible for me to finish thetext by spring, balancing it with work on Alter Ego and otherprojects; obviously, we would be several months late by theoriginal schedule, while the looming on-sale date (tied to Yuletidesales) never altered by one millisecond.

In addition, several other people were being hired, some atleast partly at my recommendation, to assist the editors in assem-bling the monumental amount of artwork and photos—as well asto write related captions—needed for the book. This included mylongtime comics history colleagues, the self-styled “Yancy StreetGang” (in alphabetical order: Nick Caputo, Barry Pearl, and Dr.Michael J. Vassallo). John Rhett Thomas (no relation) acted asMarvel contact and fact-checker, besides writing mini-biographiesfor the back of the book; and several other skilled artisans workedon other aspects of it. Josh Baker, a knowledgeable comic bookenthusiast whose special project this book was—as had been theequally massive 2010 volume 75 Years of DC Comics—was the book’sofficial editor and guiding light, and deservedly wound up with a title-page “Edited and designed by” credit; the book would be far more his thanmine, whatever the authorial byline. Nina Wiener coordinated andoversaw the day-to-day aspects of the editing, later ably aided and abettedby Maurene Goo. Although Taschen is a German publishing company, ithas major offices in New York and Los Angeles, and Josh and Nina (invarying degrees) divide their time between the two coasts. Since we wereso far behind the eight-ball timewise, there was, alas, no time to finalizean index such as the DC-related volume had had; but otherwise every-thing made it into the book that was supposed to make it into the book—including a thorough-going fold-out timeline sheet (primarily by AndyLewis) that was inserted in—but not physically attached to—the volume.Marvel, of course, had overall approval of every word in the book and ofthe precise images used—but, all in all, things went reasonably smoothly

between Marvel, Taschen, andmyself, and I was pleased (as,apparently, were the former twoentities) with the mammothtome that went on sale circaNovember of last year.

While it was not my job either to choose the art and photos or to writethe captions related to either, I spent considerable time going over bothafter they were assembled, effecting the replacement of a picture here,rewriting a line of copy there. I cast a particular eye on the credits relatedto the 1960s/70s comics material, since there’s an ongoing dispute overprecisely who did what in some of the stories, particularly in the 1960s.To me, the only thing that made sense was to give the credits as printed inthe comics themselves (and/or as generally understoond at the time),rather than try to parse exactly what Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, et al.,contributed to the yarns (besides mind-bending art, of course) at any onepoint. Still, in the book’s text, I tried to make it clear that no attempt wasbeing made to ignore or denigrate the co-plotting work of the artists; it’sjust that the 75 Years of Marvel book wasn’t the place to establish abattleground over creative credits.

In retrospect, I have to admit, I’m extremely thankful that Josh andNina cajoled me into writing the entirety of the book’s main text. Iprobably should have agreed to do it from the get-go, back in 2013. As thisissue of A/E goes to press, the volume’s sizable index can now be accessedonline at www.taschen.com/marvel.

While the book wasbeing printed, Taschenmade arrangements withme (and Dann, ofcourse) to fly to LosAngeles for the majorpublicity push, over thefirst weekend inDecember. That includedseveral print and TVinterviews, a majorsigning of copies (byStan Lee and myself) atTaschen’s own bookstorethere—and a Saturday,

“It’s Very Fancy On Old Yancy Street, You Know…”The self-styled (and who’s gonna argue with ’em?) modern-day Yancy Street Gang atTaschen’s New York bookstore upon the release of 75 Years of Marvel, for which theywrote the basic captions, in addition to doing other invaluable research. When the

Taschen editors asked Roy for suggestions concerning researchers on the Golden andSilver Ages of Timely/Atlas/Marvel, the first three names that came to mind were (left to

right): Nick Caputo, Barry Pearl, and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. Photo courtesy of Barry.

Josh Baker. Nina Wiener. Maurene Goo.

The three editors Roy T. worked with on the big Taschen book. To Josh Baker’s left isthe Fred Ray cover of the 2010 Taschen volume 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of

Modern Myth-Making, written by Paul Levitz and likewise edited/shepherded byBaker. Photos courtesy of Josh and Nina Wiener.

4 Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, & Kevin Smith On 75 Years Of Marvel

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“I Felt I Belonged At Marvel”ROY THOMAS Talks About His Life As A Comics

Freelancer From 1986-1999Conducted by Jim Amash Transcribed by Brian K. Morris & Sean Dulaney

NTERVIEWEE’S INTRODUCTION: Yes, you read it right: thispreface is being written by interview subject Roy Thomas, ratherthan by ace interviewer Jim Amash. Jim, who mostly retired from

doing interviews three years ago (though he remains a consultant andassociate editor for Alter Ego), was kind enough to return to activeservice long enough to do this one, which covers my comics writing from1986 through 1999. However, a combination of his pro workload (inkingfor Archie Comics) and various personal considerations kept him fromscribbling this intro. Jim has valiantly conducted previous talks with meconcerning my career in the latter 1960s (A/E #50), the 1970s (#70), andthe 1980s (#100).

This confab is a bit different from the aforementioned trio. The firsttwo dealt almost entirely with my writing and editing for Marvel Comicsfrom 1965 through 1980—the third with the 1980-86 period when I wasunder contract as a writer for DC Comics and with my post-contract late-’80s work for the Superman company. Since ’86, I’ve been a freelancer; sothis installment (and I guess that’s what it is—a fourth installmentchronicling my checkered life in the industry) deals with my comicswriting over roughly a decade and a half, and, this time, for a number ofdifferent companies: Marvel, of course (the largest section by far), but alsoPacific, First, Dark Horse, Heroic, TSR, Topps, Cross Plains,Millennium, DC, and even Tekno (for which I never actually didanything)—and, since we still accidentally skipped a company or twowhile we rocketed along under the gun, I’ve tossed in art spots regardinga couple more as they seemed to fit, just to keep the record straight.

And, with all that, the interview was still so long that I’ve had littlechoice but to save a decade’s worth of Marvel Conan titles and theExcelsior line (a sadly aborted Stan Lee West Coast imprint of the mid-’90s) for A/E #139—those, plus the last five companies listed in thepreceding paragraph. I was loath to break the conversation into two parts,with several months between them, but it was either that or jettison theDecember 2014 Hammer Museum panel featuring Stan Lee, movie

“Nine For Mortal Men…” — No, Make That Ten!Roy Thomas (left) and Jim Amash reunited at the 2015 Heroes Con in Charlotte,NC, courtesy of a pic taken by spouse Heidi Amash—beneath covers from each

of the main companies for which Roy wrote from the mid-’80s through the’90s—roughly half of which will be discussed in this issue, with the rest saved

for A/E #139. (Clockwise from top left:) Marvel’s Avengers West Coast #90 (Jan. 1993) – art by David Ross & Tim Dzon… Pacific’s Elric #1 (April 1983) –

art by P. Craig Russell & Michael T. Gilbert… First’s Alter Ego #4 (Nov. 1986) –art by Ron Harris… Heroic’s Captain Thunder and Blue Bolt #1 (Sept. 1987) –

art by Dell Barras… TSR’s Warhawks Comics Module #1 (1990) – art by “KAA”…Dark Horse’s Cormac Mac Art #1 (1990) – art by John Bolton... Topps’ Cadillacsand Dinosaurs #1 (Feb. 1993) – art by William Stout… Cross Plains’ Red Sonja:

A Death in Scarlet (1999) – art by Steve Lightle… DC’s graphic novelSuperman: War of the Worlds (1999) – art by Michael Lark… Millennium’s H.P.Lovecraft’s Cthulhu: The Festival, Book One (1993) – art by Kelley Jones. [TM &

© respectively by Marvel Characters, Inc.; Michael & Linda Moorcock; Roy &Dann Thomas & Ron Harris; Roy & Dann Thomas; TSR, Inc.; Robert E. Howard

Properties, Inc.; Mark Schultz; Red Sonja Properties, Inc.; DC Comics;Millennium Publications.]

II

30

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director Kevin Smith, and myself that precedes this long piece… and thatI didn’t want to do.

So, onward: Jim and I began talking not quite about the mid-’80s, letalone the ’90s, but about a closely related anomaly of the year 1983, whenI was just signing the second of my three-year contracts with DC Comics,which would cover me through ’86…

Pacific Comics & First ComicsJIM AMASH: You did Elric in Epic Illustrated for Marvel, and thenyou did Elric at Pacific Comics. I was wondering, didn’t that interferewith your exclusive at DC?

ROY THOMAS: I had a clause in my contract at DC that allowedme to do a couple of outside things. Elric was probably one ofthem, because I started that with Pacific in 1983, during my DCcontract period. The Conan the Barbarian newspaper strip had beenanother exception, but Jim Shooter wouldn’t allow me to do that—and, because Crom is just, the strip died a couple of months later.

JA: Who contacted you about doing Elric for Pacific?

THOMAS: I had an agent for comics work—Mike Friedrich, who’dbeen a comic book writer for over a decade by that point, thoughhe wasn’t doing much writing anymore. He’d founded theStar*Reach Agency, named after the “ground-level” comic he did.

Mike had contacts with [Elric creator] Michael Moorcock andput together the package, with me as the writer; I think he alsolined up the artists. Michael T. Gilbert was involved with Elric fromnear the beginning of the Pacific stint, because Craig Russellwanted some help with the layouts. Michael had done productionwork on Alter Ego #11 in the first series, back around 1978, the issueMike Friedrich published. So we had this incestuous little group,and Mike [Friedrich] was kind of the ringmaster. He knew Ialready had an interest in Elric, since I’d stuck him years earlierinto Conan the Barbarian. We made a nice team, Russell and Gilbertand me… then Michael and me after Craig departed.

After the end of the Russell/Gilbert period, Elric bouncedaround between artists in several-issue series. The Elric series hadswitched companies, too—from Marvel to Pacific, a new companyowned by the Schanes brothers, for a single six-issue series—andthen in 1986 to First Comics in Chicago, which had been launchedwith Mike Gold as co-founder. He and I had known each other fora few years, from when he was associated with the Chicagoconvention.

The only sour note on Elriccame a few years later, whenthey got to the very last series,Stormbringer… the death ofElric. At that stage, CraigRussell aced me out and wrotethe thing himself as well asdrawing it. He may have done afine job… I wouldn’t know. I’venever read it or looked at it, andnever will.

JA: On Elric, you had a timelineyou followed from the originalstories, right?

THOMAS: Yes, they wereadapted pretty much in order,except for maybe the story forEpic Illustrated. I thoughtMoorcock’s early Elric taleswere the strongest. In one ortwo later ones, I feel they relieda bit too much on deus exmachina. Elric would get in aproblem and suddenly he’dremember some millennia-oldspell. But I’m sure I did stufflike that with Dr. Strange in thelate ’60s, too. Not every storycan work out perfectly.

JA: Did Moorcock like how youinterpreted Elric?

THOMAS: Well, he’s never saidmuch for it or against it—exceptfor understandably disliking the“dunce cap” Barry and I put onElric’s head in Conan theBarbarian. But that was amistake made because he was depicted that way on the covers ofthe first American paperbacks. I’m happy that Titan Comics is nowreprinting our Pacific and First adaptations in hardcover. Some ofthose have never been collected before.

JA: When you did the series for Pacific, I’m assuming you got a page rate.Did it make any royalties for you?

“I Felt I Belonged At Marvel!” 31

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writing partners and to talk about thedivision of labor and pay.

THOMAS: Dann and I met Jean-Marcand his wife and collaborator Randy inL.A. He’s French, she’s American.They live in France now, in theCarcasonne region. We met themaround 1980 through the LASFAS, theLos Angeles Science Fantasy Society.Bradbury and Larry Niven havebelonged to it; it was a bunch ofscience-fiction fans who held meetingsand gave parties. [mutual laughter] Westarted hanging around together. Jean-Marc and Randy became the peoplewe saw the most of, even though welived an hour apart—them up in theSan Fernando Valley, us down south in the San Pedro area.

Jean-Marc was very interested in comics. Eventually he andRandy became partners with the artist Moebius when he moved toAmerica for a while. They arranged for the landmark reprinting ofvirtually all of Moebius’ work by Marvel. Because I was looking forwork but hated trolling around to editors, Jean-Marc would comeup with an idea, and I’d say, “Let’s see if we can make somethingout of this and split the money.” He and Randy also wrote somecomic stories on their own, including a few for DC.

56 Roy Thomas Talks About His Life As A Comics Freelancer From 1986-1999

Randy & Jean-Marc LofficierJean-Marc co-plotted numerous yarns

with Roy—while he and Randytogether brought the collected worksof Moebius (Jean Giraud) to Marvel!

Photo courtesy of the Lofficiers.

What If—Roy Thomas & Jean-Marc Lofficier Collaborated On A Story?Well, one result—out of a grand total of eight—would’ve been the story in What If…?,

Vol. 2, #24 (April 1991). Art by Tom Morgan. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Planes, Trains, & AnnualsThe gods Loki and Pluto meet and will soon agree that each of them will kill the other’s worst enemy (that’s Thor and Hercules, to you!), thereby giving

each other an alibi, to protect them from the vengeance of papas Odin and Zeus. The 1950 Hitchcock film classic Strangers on a Train, from which the theme of “Strangers on an Astral Plane” was borrowed, had been adapted from a novel by one-time Timely Comics writer Pat Highsmith! Script by Roy Thomas;

full art by John Buscema—for Avengers Annual #23 (1994). The story was concluded in that year’s Thor Annual. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Page 8: Alter Ego #136

On most of our projects, he’d be the plotter, basically. I’d workwith him on the shaping of it, especially for front-of-the-bookfeatures. Jean-Marc’s area of expertise was a real knowledge ofminutiae and an ability to bring all these things together and solveother continuity problems. In a way, it was a permutation of thesame kind of thing I did in other areas. We did a series for Dr.Strange about the Book of the Vishanti, things of that sort. I hatedto turn down any freelance work. When you’re a freelancer, if youturn something down, you don’t know if the person who offered itto you may never offer you anything else, because he feels he’d beturned down again.

JA: I know what you mean. As long as we’re talking about stand-alonecomics, let me go ahead and knock these out. You did Captain America:The Medusa Effect in 1994, and you also did The Eternals: The HerodFactor in the same year.

THOMAS: The Medusa Effect was supposed to be what they calledthen a “prestige format book.” It was supposed to be printed ongood paper, and they wanted a “Captain America” story with aslightly more adult feel. Not “adult” in the sense of sex andviolence, for a change, but in the sense of being a bit more realism-based than the usual comic. So, in the first half, I brought inelements like News on the March, that takeoff on the March of Timedocumentary series that Welles used in Citizen Kane. I brought in

Nikola Tesla, a very real scientist, who actually did die at anadvanced age in 1943 in his New York hotel room. I just turned itinto a murder. A couple of years before his death, he claimed hecould build a wall of “teleforce” around the United States toprotect it from enemy bombers… things like that… so it seemedlogical that the Nazis would want to lay their hands on Tesla’ssecrets. He’s popped up in a lot of comics since, but I don’t thinkyou’ll find him in many earlier than The Medusa Effect.

Rich Buckler drew a more realistic, illustrative approach toCaptain America… and then everything fell apart. Rich left thebook, and another artist—M.C. Wyman—was put on it; he wasgood, but he did a straighter comics approach. At the same time, ormaybe just before, the editors decided it would just be an extra-thick one-shot comic book, not a prestige book. So I’d lost a lot ofmy enthusiasm for it by the time I was plotting the second half.

Incidentally, I never felt at Marvel, like I occasionally did at DC,that sometimes there was actual sabotage involved in things thatwent wrong. At Marvel, I just always felt, hey, it’s just Marvelscrewing up in the way we always did. [Jim laughs]

The Herod Factor, the Eternals thing, was done in eight-pagechapters for that biweekly Marvel comic.

JA: Marvel Comics Presents.

THOMAS: Marvel Comics Presents. Actually, I was scheduled to dotwo series for that title. The first was a revival of The Invaders usingan alternate history. We’d pick up in 1942 where the 1970s Invadersleft off, and all of a sudden, Roosevelt would get killed. Thatwould help us emphasize that, when you interject super-heroesand super-villains into a war, things aren’t going to stay the sameas in the history you read in school—back in the days when theytaught history inschool, and not justfeel-good politicallycorrect narrative. “TheInvaders” was all setto be a series. Then, atthe last minute, MarkGruenwald, who wasa top editor and hadapproved the concept,sunk the series. I nevercould get any kind ofanswer as to why.

They also wantedme to write “TheEternals” and bringthem into the MarvelUniverse, since Jack[Kirby] had kept them

When “Tesla” Meant More Than An Electric AutomobileThe death of master inventor Nikola Tesla in Captain America: The MedusaEffect. Script by Roy Thomas; pencils by Rich Buckler; inks by Jim Sanders. It started out to be a graphic novel… and Roy feels it should’ve remained

one. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Mark Texeiraat the Big Apple Comics

Convention, 2010.

Ikaris Dikaris Dock!Mark Texeira’s bold cover for the 64-page

Eternals: The Herod Factor #1-and-only (March 1994). He penciled the interior art; script

by Roy & Dann Thomas. Note that the indicia title doesn’t appear on the cover. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“I Felt I Belonged At Marvel!” 57

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Seal Of Approval:The History Of

The Comics CodeThe Concluding Chapter Of The 1998 Study

On Comics CensorshipBy DR. AMY KISTE NYBERG

71

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: This issuebrings to a close the reprinting of the main text ofher landmark history of comic book censorship,

whose chapters have previously appeared in Alter Ego #123-128, 130, &133-135. As we’ve noted before: Seal of Approval is “footnoted” in theMLA (Modern Library Association] style which lists book, article, orauthor name, plus page numbers, between parentheses in the main text:e.g., “(Hart 134-156)” refers to pp. 154-156 of whichever work by anauthor or editor named Hart is listed in Seal’s bibliography (which will beprinted in an issue or two, to encourage further reading). When theparentheses contain only page numbers, it’s because the other pertinentinformation is printed in the text almost immediately preceding the note.

Once again, we have retained nearly all usages and spellings andcapitalizations from the original work, which can still be obtained from itspublisher, the University Press of Mississippi, atwww.upress.sate.ms.us. Our thanks again to Dr. M. Thomas Inge,under whose general editorship the volume was originally published in1998—and who aided us greatly in obtaining permission for ourreprinting—and to William Biggins and Vijah Shah, acquisitions editorspast and present of the UPM. In our own captions, which may not neces-sarily reflect the opinions of Dr. Nyberg or of the UPM, we have revertedto our own house style. Thanks to Brian K. Morris for a retyping assist.

The previous chapter brought the history of comics censorship and theComics Code Authority up through the institution of a new and lessrestrictive Code in 1989, plus a general survey of the field through thelatter 1990s, just before the book was published. There follows [1998] Dr.Nyberg’s observations concerning the relevance of the Code as of 1998...

ConclusionThe Significance Of The Code Today [1998]

rom the beginning, the comic book controversy wasconstructed around children. For educators and librarians,the comic book was a threat to adult authority over

children’s reading and their leisure time; after the war, the comicbook became a threat to adult authority in maintaining law andorder. In both instances, the child audience was justification fortaking action against comic books, as well as other mass media.Even with a lack of evidence proving that mass media sex andviolence had harmful effects on children, common sense dictatedthat a steady diet of such material simply could not be good for

young minds. Protection of children made a strong case for bothcommunity and political action. In cities across the United States,decency campaigns organized by church groups, civic organiza-tions, and women’s groups targeted local retailers. Threats of aboycott were usually enough to encourage shop owners to removematerials deemed offensive. Politicians, too, found the comic bookcrusade a worthy cause and launched investigations atthe state and federal level, threatening to pass legis-lation censoring comic books. These investigationsaccomplished little in the way of legislation, but theyquite effectively generated enough negative publicityto force the comic book publishers into action.

PsychiatristFredric Werthamplayed a pivotalrole in focusingnationalattention oncomic books andjuvenile delin-quency.Werthambrought to thecrusade alifelong interestin social influ-ences on violentbehavior,suggesting thatintervention atthe social, notthe individual,level was themost effectiveway to deal withproblems suchas juveniledelinquency. Farfrom being anaive socialscientist with asimplistic cause-and-effectmodel of media

A EA E//

71

Dr. Amy K. Nyberg

“Little Lulu, I Love You-Lu Just The Same!”In the wake of the United States’ action, some othercountries enacted their own codes—as per the above

Brazilian Little Lulu reprint, whose code seal wasdistinctly modeled after the American one. Thanks to

George Hagenauer. [© the respective copyright holders.]

FF

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[Son

of

Vul

can

TM &

© D

C Co

mic

s.]

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Kid Stuff!by Michael T. Gilbert

ur esteemed editor, Roy William Thomas, Jr., was born onNovember 22, 1940. Amazingly, that means that Roy theBoy turns 75 next month. Well, he still looks like a kid to

me!

Regular readers are no doubt aware that Roy began hisremarkable comic book career writing and editing (and even illus-trating!) fanzines—most notably for Jerry Bails’ original 1961 Alter-Ego.

When he became Alter Ego’s editor, Roy kept up a lively corre-spondence with several comics pros, most notably writers GardnerFox and Otto Binder and DC editor Julie Schwartz. His contactswith Charlton led to selling his first scripts to that company, “TheSecond Trojan War” in Son of Vulcan #50 (Jan. 1966), and “The Eyeof Horus” in Blue Beetle, Vol. 3, #54 (Feb. 1966). Both stories sataround for a bit, so Roy’s first published story, “Whom Can I TurnTo?,” appeared in Modeling With Millie #44 with a cover date ofDecember 1965. But the two Charlton stories were his first profes-sional sales.

Back in the early 1960s, it was extremely rare for a fan to breakinto the pro ranks. For the most part, mainstream companies justweren’t hiring. But Charlton was a bit more fan-friendly than thenorm. At one point, they even challenged fandom to see if theycould do better than their regular writers. Roy responded—andcaught the brass ring. The cover of Son of Vulcan #50 proclaimedthis young tyro’s victory:

“ATTENTION FANZINE READERS!!! Charlton’s challenge hasbeen answered... The story in this issue was by one of YOU!!!DON’T MISS IT!

“One of YOU!!!” makes is sound like Charlton thought comicfans were some weird species, doesn’t it?

OO

No Contest!(Above:) The blurb on Son of Vulcan

#50 announced Roy’s winning entry ofthe Charlton Challenge contest—only

Charlton had never actually announcedthe “contest” in any of their comics!Pencils by Bill Fraccio, inks by TonyTallarico. [Son of Vulcan TM & © DC

Comics.]

A One-Two Punch—Of Sorts(Left:) Roy’s first two pro script

sales appeared in Charlton’s Son ofVulcan #50 (Jan. 1966; titled

Mysteries of Unexplored Worldsuntil issue #49), and Blue Beetle,Vol. 3, #54 (Feb. 1966). Art by Bill

Fraccio & Tony Tallarico. As ithappened, both were the final

issues of those series. Was Charltontrying to tell Roy something? [Sonof Vulcan & Blue Beetle TM & © DC

Comics.]

80 Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

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Captain Marvel: A 75-YearAnniversary Tribute

The World’s Mightiest Kudos To The World’s Mightiest Mortal

Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

oly Moley! It’s been 75 years since Bill Parker and C.C.Beck’s Captain Marvel first appeared in Fawcett’sfunny-books, taking the comics industry—and the

hearts and fancy of millions—by thunderstorm. The amiablehero’s faithful followers during the Golden Age had been struckby lightning, and all that was needed was to summon one singlewish-fulfilling, call-to-action word to bolt them into a remarkablerealm where practically everything was possible. Shazam!

To help celebrate the World’s Mightiest Mortal’s Big-75, Icalled together my fellow Captain Marvel Club members andpresented them with a seemingly impossible task: put on paper(keyboard) one specific Fawcett-era “Captain Marvel” story thatleft a lasting impression on them… one that exemplifies the verythings they feel made the original CM unique, exceptional, andmemorable.

The review of lesser-known “CM” stories was encouraged, butnot mandatory. There was only one ground rule: no one wouldtake on Mr. Mind and the Monster Society of Evil. It was agreedthat we all loved the unprecedented 25-chapter serial, and thatwhat had already been said about it previously in Alter Ego wassufficient.

And now, let’s wander down to the abandoned subway stationwhere it all began…. —PCH.

The Great Comic Book HeroIt was 1965.

President Kennedy was gone. The Beatles were here. TheCuban invasion had failed. The British invasion had takenover the American rock ’n’ roll charts.

The second New York comics convention was takingplace, with over 200 attendees expected. Fanzines, largelythe only way to learn about comic books and their super-heroes, found their printed mimeographed circulationsreaching as high as 500 in some cases. (The photo-offsetAlter Ego had hit the 1000 mark.) “Internet” was a term thatcould only have been used in doubles tennis, if anywhere.The history of comics was like a buried treasure to us comicbook readers of the Silver Age… lost and irretrievablewithout a key.

But suddenly, everything changed! The mystical key to theglorious past of our beloved super-heroes appeared within thegrasp of every fan. It was a book. It was written by a man namedJules Feiffer. And it was called The Great Comic Book Heroes. And itwas good.

At last, the vault swung open, and we fans not only weretreated to an anecdotal history of our favorite pastime (or, in mycase, “full-time”), we were also presented with full-color reprints ofvintage comic book stories featuring the great first generation ofsuper-heroes!

We learned to our abject astonishment that Superman looked

Under The “J”—75! Bingo!Frequent FCA contributor artist Jay Piscopo helps us commemorate 75 years of Captain Marvel with this thunderous tribute piece. [Shazam hero & Billy Batson

TM & © DC Comics; other art © 2015 Jay Piscopo.]

HH

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ALTER EGO #136BONUS 100-PAGE issue as ROY THOMAS talks to JIM AMASHabout celebrating his 50th year in comics—and especially aboutthe ‘90s at Marvel! Art by TRIMPE, GUICE, RYAN, ROSS,BUCKLER, HOOVER, KAYANAN, BUSCEMA, CHAN,VALENTINO, and others! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’s ComicCrypt, AMY KISTE NYBERG on the Comics Code, and a covercaricature of Roy by MARIE SEVERIN!

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